• WSJ (paid subscription required), Thursday, December 22, 2005 11:45 AM

The Marlboro Man is coming to China. Under a new agreement between Philip Morris International and the Chinese government, Marlboros will be produced and distributed by the Chinese national tobacco company's affiliated factories beginning in the first half of next year. Both sides also agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture based in Switzerland to market Chinese cigarettes abroad. The Marlboro brand is widely known in China through counterfeits and imports. But imports have high tariffs that make them largely too expensive for most Chinese buyers, who prefer cheaper local brands. Locally produced Marlboros won't have import tariffs. The Chinese market for cigarettes is huge. China's 320 million smokers consumed 1.798 trillion cigarettes last year and are expected to smoke 1.814 trillion annually by 2009, according to Euromonitor International. About 60 percent of Chinese men smoke.

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